The Creative Dance: How Characters and Plot Intertwine in My Writing Process

People ask me which comes first — the characters or the plot. Honestly? Neither. It usually starts with an idea, then a world, then a place inside that world, and then someone shows up who belongs there. After that the characters and the plot just sort of argue with each other until a story comes out.

I have a whole wall. Literally a wall where I build the world piece by piece — geography, history, how people interact, what the rules are. It grows as the story grows. You don't get it all at once. You get just enough to start, and then more arrives when you need it.

The hardest part for me is depth. Getting characters to feel fully real —to have weight, history, and contradiction—that takes time, and it can feel limiting, especially early on. I work at it. I flush them out as much as I can. But even then, some days they cooperate and some days they just stand there staring at me.

The best way I can describe the whole process is cooking. You take a little of this, a little of that. You throw things in the pot and let them simmer together. After a while you taste it, and it has everything you need — but maybe it needs something else. Maybe one more thing would make it extraordinary.

The trick is you can always add more. You cannot take it back out. So you have to be careful.

That's true of seasoning, and it's true of story. Add a character detail too early, and it changes everything that comes after. Add a plot complication at the wrong moment, and suddenly you're rewriting three chapters.

I think of plot points like seeds. You plant an idea — a clue, a detail, a moment that means more than it seems — and then you walk away for a while. You come back later and see if it's taken root. Sometimes it has flourished into something you didn't expect. Sometimes it's just sitting there quietly, waiting for you to notice it again. Readers call these Easter eggs. I think of them as seedlings. They require attention and patience, and not all of them survive, but the ones that do make the whole story richer.

And then sometimes it's just a hamster on a wheel in my brain running away with itself at 2 a.m., and I have to write it down before it disappears.

The back-and-forth between character and plot isn't a problem to solve — it's just how it works. Some days the plot is loudest. Some days a character shows up with opinions I didn't ask for and the plot has to move over. I've learned to follow whatever is loudest that day. The story gets there eventually. 🐉